Ah, Liberty! (2008)

With an affection for utopian novels like Sir Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis (1626) and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826), Rivers’s work blends aspects of fiction and reality in a subversive and poetic manner. His work focuses on lone individuals and small insular communities on the fringes of society, from hermetic existences found deep in the Scottish countryside to post-apocalyptic island ecosystems.

The passing of time is a preoccupation of many of Rivers’s subjects. Conceived as a companion piece to In Origin of The Species (‘An exploration into the nature of the world via the extraordinary S, who lives in the wilderness’), Ah, Liberty! (2008) is a mesmerising study of a family’s place in the wilderness. Working and playing on a farm in the Scottish highlands throughout the seasons, it captures an untamed sense of freedom, undercut with a sense of foreboding.

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